Salmon Challis NF UTV Accident 2012

On July 11, 2012 on the Salmon-Challis National Forest, a member of a spraying crew was driving a UTV back down from the spray sites to the staging area to pick up 2 crew members who were waiting in a grassy pullout beside the road. The UTV operator drove to the pullout and made a U-Turn that started in the road and finished across the edge between the pullout and the road surface. When the UTV hit the transition between these two surfaces, where a small dip was located, the UTV began to tip to the driver’s side. the operator instinctively stuck his leg out of the UTV to the ground to help prevent the UTV from tipping. The rollbar hit the operator's lower leg (resulting in a compound break of the fibula in 2 places). When the operator first got out of the tipped UTV, he didn't realize that he had been injured--until he looked down and saw that his left foot was sticking out at an odd angle.

Non Fire, Project Work, Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) Incident